The player killed through the combined efforts of Song Yu and Xiao Hei didn’t yield much in terms of inheritance, primarily because he possessed very few backpack slots.
Those three backpack slots individually contained 3 bottles of mineral water, 2 rolls of disinfectant bandages, and 1 vial of yellow herbal medicine capable of restoring 10% of a player’s stamina.
Song Yu’s personal inventory was already well-stocked, so she didn’t pay particular attention to the player’s inheritance; her focus rested entirely on that player’s talent.
[Lockpicking Artisan: Opening A-rank locks has a 30% success probability; opening B-rank locks has a 1% success probability.]
Lockpicking artisan—it looked like a pretty decent ability on paper.
However, Song Yu had been in the game for three days already and had searched numerous locations without ever encountering a single locked object.
Without hesitation, Song Yu immediately used the talent card.
She glanced sideways at Xiao Hei resting beside her. If she happened to run across a suitable talent card in the future, she could actually pass it along to Xiao Hei as well.
Song Yu still had no idea what Xiao Hei’s talent was, but she hoped that beast tamer could give her a pleasant surprise.
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Night had already fallen, and Song Yu and Xiao Hei were holed up on the second floor of a commercial building.
The surrounding buildings were relatively intact here, offering a certain degree of defensive capability.
Organizing her newly acquired supplies, Song Yu placed her handgun in the very first slot of her backpack to ensure she could get her hands on it the moment an emergency arose.
Because of her stunt during the day, tonight’s nocturnal hours turned out exceptionally lively.
Numerous players and NPCs found themselves unable to sleep, clutching their weapons with wide, bloodshot eyes out of fear that the zombies outside might smash through their front doors.
As for Song Yu, after sharing a portion of nutrient meal and a bottle of mineral water with Xiao Hei to wrap up dinner, she was sleeping quite soundly right now.
They had eaten the exact same thing for lunch, too.
However, neither Song Yu nor Xiao Hei slept deeply enough to let their guards completely down.
After all, high-tier zombies were far too active these days.
The night wind blew cold and sharp, accompanied by the sounds of gunfire, artillery, and zombie roars. Song Yu wrapped her quilt tightly around herself and closed her eyes.
Xiao Hei also slept soundly on a mattress, enjoying a blanket all to itself and living a life better than the vast majority of human players.
While a lifestyle like this was a bit too thrilling, it was actually not half bad.
…
On the fourth day of the game, Song Yu woke up punctually at six o’clock.
The moment she got up, Xiao Hei woke up right along with her.
Because hygiene was directly tied to health stats, Song Yu currently brushed her teeth and washed her face with extreme diligence.
Lacking an actual toothbrush and toothpaste, she simply foraged for fresh tree twigs outside, dipped them in salt, and conveniently cleaned Xiao Hei’s teeth and hygiene as well.
For breakfast, she and Xiao Hei each downed a box of instant noodles and a self-heating hot pot, maxing out their fullness and hydration meters instantly.
She had to admit that consuming self-heating hot pots and instant noodles was actually quite wasteful water-wise.
Although it consumed two bottles of mineral water, the added hydration value was exceptionally low, forcing Song Yu and Xiao Hei to pop open yet another bottle of mineral water before their hydration stats finally topped out.
Having restored her status to peak condition, Song Yu slung her pack over her shoulder, gripped her nail gun, brought Xiao Hei along, and set off.
The zombies lingering around the commercial building weren’t numerous, likely because most of them had been lured away by Jiang Zhou and his team.
Armed with her nail gun, Song Yu swiftly liquidated all the zombies downstairs.
Her current location sat on the periphery of the old district, close to the city’s edge and quite a distance away from Shuyuan, the beast tamer in the New District.
Judging by Song Yu’s previous traveling speed and the density of the zombies, it would likely take around three days.
That was quite a while…
The shortest route featured the densest concentration of zombies, and she had no reason to take such an unnecessary risk.
Places with fewer zombies naturally implied fewer humans and fewer resources.
If only she had a new vehicle, like the heavy motorcycle Chen Su rode.
Song Yu’s battered bicycle possessed zero defense and zero speed.
Regrettably, she lacked the luxury of time to go specifically searching for vehicles.
Her top priority right now was tracking down the beast tamer, after all, followed by searching for transport.
Actually, the NPCs marked out on the map provided by the Watchers organization included a vehicle merchant; an NPC named Faqing reportedly commanded a massive motorcade.
His prices were exorbitant, and gasoline was even more expensive.
Vehicles required gasoline, a resource where every drop consumed was gone for good. Thinking along those lines, Song Yu suddenly decided bicycles weren’t actually half bad after all.
Fuel consumption per hundred kilometers: exactly one human.
With her target firmly set and her supplies relatively adequate, Song Yu didn’t waste time searching those buildings unless she experienced an extremely intense intuition regarding a specific structure—in which case she would specially mark it.
The richer a location was in resources, the denser the zombie population, and the higher their tiers—that statement wasn’t just empty talk.
The major hypermarkets in the New District and the wholesale markets in the old district harbored countless high-tier zombies, and to this day, those zones remained unconquered.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei embarked on the journey to find the beast tamer, trying their utmost to steer clear of areas densely packed with zombies or populated by other players.
Just as zombies clustered into packs, players formed cliques as well, and Song Yu had zero desire to cross paths head-on with those players—their headcounts were simply too large.
Her current strength still fell short.
When the clock struck three in the afternoon, she punctually began hunting for a safe shelter to spend the night.
This timing was just right; clearing out the zombies surrounding the shelter and within the interior of the building took a fair amount of time.
Days flew by rapidly, and Song Yu drew progressively closer to the active zone of the beast tamer.
On the fifth day of the game, her luck experienced an explosive surge when Xiao Hei actually managed to dig up a lone, stray Tier 3 zombie.
This was practically an unexpected windfall falling straight from the heavens; a Tier 3 zombie was valued at 200 RMB.
It was slightly cheap, but still a hundred times better than working ordinary odd jobs where her daily wage struggled to hit 100 RMB.
A lone Tier 3 zombie out in broad daylight possessed a mere 300-odd health points, making it fully manageable for Song Yu’s nail gun and crossbow.
Utilizing Xiao Hei’s kiting maneuvers, Song Yu seized every opening to drive nail after nail into the massive body of the Tier 3 zombie.
Just as Song Yu prepared to deliver the final killing blow to the zombie, a sharp whistling sound slicing through the air suddenly rang out from not far away!
Xiao Hei reacted swiftly, tackling Song Yu flat to the ground while glaring viciously at the few figures who had abruptly materialized in the distance.
Song Yu immediately covered Xiao Hei’s eyes and scrambled back up to her feet.
“Sorry, sorry, you guys okay?”
“We’ve been tailing this zombie for ages, so seeing it right there made us a bit too excited—we didn’t notice anyone else was nearby.”
“Sincere apologies about that.”
While mouthing words of apology, the newcomer’s tone carried not a shred of genuine remorse; instead, it reeked of a mocking, snide sarcasm.
Trailing this zombie for ages—wasn’t that just a roundabout way of accusing Song Yu of stealing their kill and loot?
Yet when Song Yu had first encountered this zombie, its health bar was still sitting at 100% full.
Song Yu reined in the murderous impulses churning inside her heart and forced a smile onto her face—though it looked rather strained.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a player scooping up the mutated blood dropped on the ground. Bastards!
A bunch of thieving bastards!
“It’s fine.”
“Since you guys have already taken care of the zombie, I’ll be heading off first.”
Inside her mind, Song Yu was already calculating how to wipe out this group of players. They weren’t like that batch of scrawny monkeys she had run into previously.
While they didn’t appear to be carrying firearms, it was blindingly obvious that their combat prowess far surpassed anything the scrawny monkey crew could dream of matching.
Hard to kill.
Even if Song Yu possessed a gun, it wouldn’t help much; their numbers and overall strength gave them a clear advantage.
Song Yu temporarily swallowed this bitter pill of humiliation. However, the words uttered by the player who had just picked up the mutated blood made her murderous intent surge right back to the surface.
“Yo, this dog’s looking pretty plump and meaty. Should be enough for a few hearty meals, right?”